It reminded me of one of our more recent adventures, in which I introduced an ostracized renegade hermit Illithid, who decided at some point that he'd rather not eat the brains of intelligent creatures anymore. He had a hydra chained up in his back yard. Whenever he got hungry, he'd immobilize it, suck the brains out of one of the heads -- killing the one head -- cut off the dead head, and wait for it to grow back.
It gave him an unlimitied supply of non-sapient brains to eat... And a handy "guard dog" for his backyard.